Screenshot_2024-06-06_at_6.50.38_PM.pngAsset-7q2.pngHyperhidrosis is a serious medical condition characterized by excessive, uncontrollable sweating and the International Hyperhidrosis Society is the only global non-profit organization dedicated entirely to improving the lives of those affected by it.

We are your source for reliable, up-to-date information about hyperhidrosis treatments and research. We're also here to provide you with understanding and support. If your life is being ruined by sweating - you are NOT alone. Studies show that hyperhidrosis is common, severe, and emotionally damaging. 

Research shows that nearly 5% of the world's population suffers from excessive sweating or hyperhidrosis. That's right, 385 MILLION people are struggling with extreme sweating -- just like you!

Of course, no one's hyperhidrosis is exactly the same. Some people fill their shoes with sweat, some have dripping no-handshakes-please palms, some sweat through their shirts, others sweat through their jeans, and most have a combination of sweaty body areas to contend with. Regardless of whether you sweat dramatically on your head or your toes or anywhere in between, we know the embarrassment, anxiety, and crippling effects are real and we want to help.

As the only independent, global, non-profit advocacy and education organization serving the hyperhidrosis community, we encourage you to use this website to get smarter about excessive sweating. Read, print, participate, download, and sign-up today.

While you are doing that, we'll be running medical education courses in hyperhidrosis to help healthcare providers provide the best hyperhidrosis care possible, supporting new hyperhidrosis treatment research, talking to journalists around the world to encourage empathy and awareness, providing you with useful news alerts, and applying for grants so we can keep going. 

Here are a few of the useful things you'll find on the following pages: comprehensive treatment option information, U.S. insurance codes, hyperhidrosis clinical trials recruiting now, a Clinician Finder, an award-winning free blog  dedicated to sweat news, and amazing product discounts on the most useful sweat-management products. Your sweat is nearly always with you. We want to be there too.

Feeling the love? Share it! We are stronger when we work together. Donate today to help us find a cure and increase public awareness. Yes, tomorrow CAN be better than today. 

Asset-7q2.pngScreenshot_2024-06-06_at_6.50.38_PM.png

Hyperhidrosis is a serious medical condition characterized by excessive, uncontrollable sweating and the International Hyperhidrosis Society is the only global non-profit organization dedicated entirely to improving the lives of those affected by it.

We are your source for reliable, up-to-date information about hyperhidrosis treatments and research. We're also here to provide you with understanding and support. If your life is being ruined by sweating - you are NOT alone. Studies show that hyperhidrosis is common, severe, and emotionally damaging. 

{loadposition tower} Research shows that nearly 5% of the world's population suffers from excessive sweating or hyperhidrosis. That's right, 385 MILLION people are struggling with extreme sweating -- just like you!

Of course, no one's hyperhidrosis is exactly the same. Some people fill their shoes with sweat, some have dripping no-handshakes-please palms, some sweat through their shirts, others sweat through their jeans, and most have a combination of sweaty body areas to contend with. Regardless of whether you sweat dramatically on your head or your toes or anywhere in between, we know the embarrassment, anxiety, and crippling effects are real and we want to help.

As the only independent, global, non-profit advocacy and education organization serving the hyperhidrosis community, we encourage you to use this website to get smarter about excessive sweating. Read, print, participate, download, and sign-up today.

While you are doing that, we'll be running medical education courses in hyperhidrosis to help healthcare providers provide the best hyperhidrosis care possible, supporting new hyperhidrosis treatment research, talking to journalists around the world to encourage empathy and awareness, providing you with useful news alerts, and applying for grants so we can keep going. 

Here are a few of the useful things you'll find on the following pages: comprehensive treatment option information, U.S. insurance codes, hyperhidrosis clinical trials recruiting now, a Clinician Finder, an award-winning free blog  dedicated to sweat news, and amazing product discounts on the most useful sweat-management products. Your sweat is nearly always with you. We want to be there too.

Feeling the love? Share it! We are stronger when we work together. Donate today to help us find a cure and increase public awareness. Yes, tomorrow CAN be better than today. 

Sweat is essential to human survival and serves as the body’s coolant, protecting it from overheating.

There are two to four million sweat glands distributed all over our bodies. The majority of them are “eccrine” sweat glands, which are found in large numbers on the soles of the feet, the palms, the forehead and cheeks, and in the armpits.

Eccrine glands secrete an odorless, clear fluid that helps the body to control its temperature by promoting heat loss through evaporation. In general, the type of sweat involved in hyperhidrosis is eccrine sweat.

The other type of sweat gland is called an “apocrine” gland. Apocrine glands are found in the armpits and genital region. They produce a thick fluid. When this fluid comes in contact with bacteria on the skin’s surface, it produces a characteristic potent "body odor".

Both the eccrine and apocrine sweat glands are activated by nerves. These nerves respond to a variety of stimuli including: 

• messages from the brain indicating that the body is too hot
• hormones
• emotions
• physical activity or exercise

In people who have excessive sweating or hyperhidrosis, the sweat glands (eccrine glands in particular) overreact to stimuli and are just generally overactive, producing more sweat than is necessary. It's often said that people with hyperhidrosis have sweat glands that are stuck in the "on" position. (Ready to learn more about hyperhidrosis? Listen to the Hyperhidrosis 101 podcast now.)

Contrary to a popular myth on the internet, sweat is NOT made up of toxins and therefore you don't 'sweat out' toxins. Rather, sweat is made upsweat glands of 99 percent water and small bits of carbs, salt, protein, and urea. The kidneys and liver are the organs responsible for detoxing your body (not the sweat glands). 

Not all excessive sweating is the same. And, in fact, sometimes profuse sweating can be a sign of something very serious. Learn more about the two types of hyperhidrosis here. Whether you have primary focal hyperhidrosis or generalized secondary hyperhidrosis, we have incredible resources for you here at the International Hyperhidrosis Society and we hope you'll explore this website thoroughly. As you do so, you'll even find important info about sweat issues you've probably never heard of before, including not sweating at all, colored sweat, bloody sweat, smelly sweat.

 

 

Illustration explanation: The skin is composed of an epidermal layer (E) from which hair follicles (H), sweat glands (G), and sebaceous glands (S) descend into the underlying dermis (D). Attribution: Reprinted from Robbin’s Pathologic Basis of Disease, Edition 6, Cotran, Ramzi S., Chapter 27, Fig 27-1A, Copyright 1999, with permission from Elsevier.